With just one month remaining of the misery that has been the 2010 season in Lakeview, the Chicago Cubs are 20 games below .500. On Monday night, despite holding a special ceremony to honor newly-inducted Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson, the team played to the emptiest Wrigley Field in nearly three years: A crowd of less than 30,000 fans.In truth, it is not only the losing that has driven the fans away, but the fact that the team plays a sloppy, often unwatchable brand of baseball. No team in baseball has committed more errors; no National League team has stolen ...

Lou Piniella is home.
Sweet Lou, the manager of the Chicago Cubs and four other teams since 1986, has called it a career. And what a career it has been.
Piniella ranks 14th on the all-time wins list for managers: he’s been a three-time manager of the year, and he won the World Series as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1990.
As a player, he was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1969 and an All-Star in 1972 with the Kansas City Royals. He ended his playing career with the New York Yankees in 1984, but not before winning two ...

There has been a lot of traffic over the question of what exactly the Cubs are going to do at the first base position since Derrek Lee left the team. There has been a lot of fanfare regarding Tyler Colvin’s move to first, but Mike Quade seems to have squelched that idea. So what are the Cubs to do? Well there are many options, some more possible than others.
Sign a Free Agent
This appears to be, by far, the laziest of any possible solutions. I mean it’s easy, right? Let’s just throw some money at the problem, and bring in a ...

In light of my recent obsession with Cubs rookie pitchers, I’ve taken notice to yet another intriguing young arm. Marcos Mateo made his big league debut Aug. 8, and has enjoyed little to no success since then.
Mateo joined the Cubs’ system as a player to be named later in the trade that sent outfielder Buck Coats (remember him?) to Cincinnati in 2007. While the Cubs tried their hand at making Mateo a starter, it is clear his control issues limit him to a relief role.
The 26-year-old right-hander has shared time in the Cubs’ Rookie, Double-A, and Triple-A leagues this season ...

Mike Quade, the new manager who just managed his first three victories in the majors over Washington, is now the popular choice for manager of the Cubs. However, knowing that the Cubs are going for a youth movement over the next few years, they should have a manager who is going to grow with them.
Enter Ryne Sandberg.
Sandberg was the anchor at second base for the Cubs for over a decade. He is one of only six Cubs to have their number retired, and the last three years has worked his way the through the Cubs farm system, now managing the Triple-A Iowa Cubs.
He ...

Remember the last time a loud-mouth, no-talent jackass from Cincinnati decided to make scarce from this franchise?
When Dibble "resigns" do you think he'll blame the media? Either way, Zuckerman might have to update that list of the best days in franchise history.
Nats Announcer Dibble Requested Time OffWASHINGTON (AP)Washington Nationals announcer Rob Dibble will take some time off two days after making comments critical of rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg.MASN spokesman Todd Webster said Dibble would not work Wednesday night's game against the Chicago Cubs and is ''taking a few days off.'' Webster said Dibble requested the time off, but did not ...

Yesterday’s transaction line for the Cubs showed a bit of an eye-opening move.
Cubs' GM Jim Hendry exchanged one youthful left-handed specialist reliever for a righty with so-so stuff in a move that sent Justin Berg down to Triple-A Iowa for Scott Maine.
Berg has been a very big disappointment in his first try in the majors, sporting a 5.77 ERA to go along with his 2.88 strikeout per nine innings ratio.
To make matters worse than that terrible K/9 figure, he is walking a ton of batters, leading to a unthinkable 0.61 K/BB rate (2.15 average).
It looks as though even though Berg ...

With his retirement now as a player and manager complete, Lou Pinella will wait for a call from Cooperstown as one of this generation's most successful managers having won 1,835 games with five major league clubs.
A World Series-winning manager with the Cincinnati Reds in 1990, Pinella won six divisional championships in 23 seasons including a record 116 games versus just 46 losses with a Seattle team that included future Hall of Famers Alex Rodriguez and Randy Johnson in 2001.
The former 1969 Rookie of the Year and the first Kansas City Royal to see a major league pitch, Pinella managed one All-Star game (1991) while being ...

First of all, no one is anointing Mike Quade the next manager of your Chicago Cubs. He is an interim manager and there will be plenty of available candidates and many interviews for Cubs GM Jim Hendry to sort through this offseason.
Still, it is reasonable to assume that Quade's assignment is an indication that he is, indeed, one of the candidates for the permanent job going forward.
As Quade himself stated, "It's absolutely an audition."
And, as the Associated Press announced, "Being a fixture on Piniella's staff since 2007 and the manager of the Cubs' triple-A affiliate for the four previous seasons ...

In honour of the great hostile manager Lou Piniella retiring this weekend, we here at MWS have decided to count down ten of the best baseball manager ejections.10. Terry Francona (Boston Red Sox, MLB)—2010 VS Toronto Blue JaysNothing too crazy here, though it is pretty funny to watch the usually collected Francona get tossed in Toronto, then sort-of mimick the umpire's tossing motion.
9. Ricky VanAsselberg (Alexandria Aces, United League Baseball)—2008 VS Amarillo DillasWhat makes this ejection so great is the quiet beginning to it. VanAsselberg is out on the mound talking to the pitcher, the ump comes out to ...